Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Yesterday ended up being a short day at work. Our $25 tournament did not happen. Evidently another casino in town is running something pretty close to ours and it drew the customers across town.

We did run the $2 tournament early morning with about 30 players and we also had a live game running prior to the tournament. Lets hope today we can run both our early and noon tournaments.

On Saturdays we are going to start an all day Sit-n-Go's. We will have them starting every hour to hour and a half and then run the live game continually if they want to play. Hopefully changing it up a little bit will help.

Since I had the time at home I decided to allow myself the time to write my letter to Mom. It is done and now I need to go over it as well. It was very hard for me to do this and allowed me to get some feelings out that were being built up inside of me. I know it was good and needed to be done.

My wife and I went to the church and we discussed the Memorial for my Mom and so we are on our way to setting up what needs to be done.

After all of that we decided to go get something to eat. We like to eat at Bento's. This is a Terriyaki place and they serve good food. We sat down and ordered. We had some other people walk in and sit down close to us and I then realized that this was a son with his older mom. I could hardly contain myself. Something I couldn't do because of the Alzheimer and Cancer.

I quess if I had to say one thing about all of this please take your Mom out to dinner and enjoy their company. You will be glad you did and the memories you create will be lifetime.

Today I am going to put my Mom's Obituary here in my blog.

Marla V. Irwin was born September 24, 1931 to Bonnie and Dora Collins Whadford in Payette, ID.

Her family moved to Selah, WA where Marla met Norma Lambdin and her mother Muriel Patterson. She then moved with them to Hooker, OK where she attended school graduating in 1949. There she met the love of her life, Henry Irwin, they were married in 1951. After Henry completed his military service they moved to Seattle, WA where they started their family. Following the birth of their third child they moved to Indio, CA where their fourth child was born. In 1968 they returned to the Seattle, WA area living in Enumclaw and Auburn until 1977 when they relocated to College Place, WA. Upon her retirement in 1991 as a medical receptionist, they moved to Buckeye, AZ. In 2001 they returned to Richland, WA to be closer to family.

She was a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Her faith was strong. She was open to all religions, studying and reading the bible in groups to enrich her knowledge. She would share her knowledge with friends and family and was eager to learn more.

Her parents, siblings Chet, Bonnie, Colin, Doris and Maxine and her adopted mom Muriel Patterson, preceded her in death. She’s survived by her loving husband of 61 years, Henry, children Stacy and Tracey of Waterflow, NM; Steve and Cindy of Richland, WA; Kristi Perham and fiancé Clyde Weik of Spanaway, WA; Jana Treadwell of Los Angeles, CA: Seven grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and her adopted sister Norma Lambdin of Oklahoma City, OK.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

This morning I have some items that need to get done. I needed to get all of the obituaries sent off and paid for. We have five papers that are being notified and make sure we follow all of their rules for getting them in soon.

I started work on the local paper, Tri-City Herald and went through the list of finding addresses and sending them the obituary by email. It was easy enough, the part that was hard was the wait for acceptance.

I also contacted Hooker Advance in Hooker, OK, The Daily Times in Farmington, NM, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin in Walla Walla and then the final one was Independent-Enterprise in Payette, ID.

They were all very friendly folks and I had no issues getting them in. The cost is what surprised me. I will list the lowest to the highest in charges:
5) Hooker Advance at $3
4) Independent-Interprise at $46.50
3) Tri-City Herald at $91.80
2) Walla Walla Union-Bulletin at $114.48
1) Daily Times of Farmington NM at $143.28

I just couldn't believe the cost of placing these ads. Not anywhere even close to each other for a paper insert cost.

Now our attentions are on the Memorial and how that is going to be done. We have a meeting today and hopefully that will set the outline of the program.

My Birthday is this week. I will be 56 years old. I am hoping for a good year as I was born in 1956 and I will be 56 and this year is an even year 2012.

Last night I went out and played some live poker at Islands Casino. I played $2-$10 and after my 3 hour session I brought back $80 for my bankroll. It is continuing to grow and that is good. I had a person who, for some reason, kept testing me if I would play to his stakes. He kept raising and I would call if I had something to call with. Taking it down was a good feeling. I even asked him if he was just testing me and he said yes. I will play if I have something. I will put my soldiers out there if you continue to play loose like that.

Monday, February 27, 2012

After all the hard work of getting into this tournament I felt I left a job undone.

I was excited, to say the least, to get going and have the opportunity to play with the top ten in the area. I made sure I was rested and I arrived early to get my money paid and just be ready to go. I did all of that and then some by reading my book about playing. All the last minute details were completed.

I drew my card and sat down in the number one seat of table four. I like the one or the ten seat as that does hide me from the other players just a little bit. After we got going I even put my earplugs in to listen to some music and just be patient. I had T$10,000 in chips and I was not going to play aggressive for the first 3 rounds.

I even played one hand and won the pot and that made me feel good and now I felt I was into the game. I was watching the number two seat as he was one of the top ten players. The other person was in the number eight seat and I have played against her before so I somewhat knew her game. The one next to me had position on me so I would need to learn what he was playing and be careful with my betting. Watching to see if he would raise me at any time.

The storm was brewing and I couldn't see it coming. The person in seat four was being somewhat aggressive and had won a few pots already. They were small but still he was playing somewhat loose. He was under 21 so I felt he was a little vulnerable.

I looked at my cards and I have AdKc and I raised to $250 to thin the field. I get two callers. The kid in seat four and a person in seat six. The flop comes Qd10dJs. It was raised to $500 and I re-raised to $1,000 and the kid goes all-in. The person in seat 6 goes all in. I am now stuck with a decision for my tournament life real early.

What do I do with this? I have a straight to the Ace. I can see the two diamonds and figure someone would try for the diamond flush but why all in? The other person might have a set? They wouldn't do this with a pair only. Wow, I struggled with this and decided with T$20,000 of chips out there already and my opportunity for a total T$30,000 I decided to go all in as well.

The kid turned over Kd9d for the straight to the K and flush draw. Then seat six turned over the AK for the straight to the Ace and then mine the AdKc showing the straight to the Ace. I needed two diamonds for the flush or no diamonds for the split pot. The turn comes 5h and the river comes xdiamond. Myself and seat six were knocked out of the tournament with the young kid getting his diamond flush.

It sort of felt unfinished being the first one out of this tournament. I struggled to get in and then it was over just like that. What did I learn? I have continued to talk to others about this and see if my decision to go all in was correct or should I have laid this down and fight another time?

You can let me know how you feel about this one. I am really trying to learn from this one for next time.

I came home and just relaxed the rest of the day since I had to go to work in the evening dealing cards. I have all of the obituaries out now waiting for the newspapers to get ahold of me to see what I owe them for putting this in their paper.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Yesterday I dealt some live and then two tournaments. Now is the time to start getting myself mentally prepared and working on my strategy depending on who is at my table. I like to have goals and will work out what I want them to be. I also will go over some of Annie Dukes ideas in her book. Anything to be focused on what I need to do.

Now, this tournament is a bounty and that will play just a little bit different than a normal tournament. I need to be careful on how I approach each bounty. Any time I have played this format I haven't chosen to risk all of my chips just for the bounty chip. I usually will work on them chip wise and then let someone else take them out. This time they are worth $50 per top player. There will be 2 per table to start and 10 overall top players with 40 of the qualified players.

I did play some live yesterday and earned back one buyin. After Friday loss I am happy to just get a little of it back at a time.

I am also working tonight from 5PM to closing. I have done that once before so I will try it again tonight. Hopefully it will not be a late night. Does that mean I hope there isn't much of a live game to keep us going? Doesn't matter really.

Tomorrow is my day off and I will be working on getting the obituaries into the papers. There are things that need to be done and I need to work on them as well. This has been such a big weekend for me.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

This day was important to me in that I wanted to earn my way into the Sunday tournament with the 10 best players in the Tri-Cities according to our poker manager. Either way this will be a good test of where my game is at compared to some very good players.

I did play some live cash at $2-$6 and $2-$10 and I started off not playing like I should have and dropped $150 through out the day from my bankroll. I will do better next time. Maybe it was the makeup of the table that got me but I will be better prepared.

The first tournament was not the qualifier but a regular day game and if I could have somehow gotten into the final table and cashed I would have gotten my second voucher for the qualifier. I ended up going out in 11th place and bubbled the table. Knowing I played well to get there I was not worried about my game and felt I could get into the top ten in one of the two tournaments ahead of me.

The 3PM qualifier had over 50 runners and I settled in for the long haul knowing I needed to pick up chips and make the proper decisions with each hand I played. I did pick up some good hands and used them to my advantage with raises and continuation bets. I stayed away from the all in just in case I ran into something big I couldn't win.

In the end of the first one I fell just short. I came in 13th position and missed the final table by 3 players. That really hurt me and I was having to think what could I have done better to get just a little bit further. If I would have played a few more hands in position or raised I possibly could have built enough chips to make the final push.

Changing my style of play from starting TAG to LAG seemed to work especially when the cards started to show up at the right time. I could see the change in the table dynamics this time that showed me when people were tightening up their play and that allowed me to loosen up my game. I may have showed one hand the whole time just to show I was tight and when I am playing I have the goods.

The second qualifier started at 7PM and we had over 40 runners for this one. I started off doing the same thing but I also threw in listening to my iPhone music for awhile just to do something different and try to relax a bit. I have been putting enough pressure on myself to get one of these two qualifiers that now I am down to my last one. I know it will come down to who has the mental ability to make this.

We got down to 19 players and I was feeling the pressure. The last qualifier I made it to 13th and I wanted to get further this time and make the final table goal. I put myself in concentration mode of my chipstack and what was out there that needed to go before me. I was relieved and nervous for each number that was yelled out. 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13 and this was the hump I needed to get over. I had to make it past 13 to feel like it was within my grasp. Eventually 12, and now 11. The bubble was here and I was short stack.

I was so tight and I knew I needed to be loose but with a short stack I had to reverse my thinking and be patient. I could feel the pressure and the stress. The adrenaline was there as well. Could I ride this horse?

At one moment I had to go all in with my short stack. This was it for the tournament life. My cards were A7 suited diamonds. I needed them to hold. One guy from the other table came over and his brothers were standing directly behind me saying things like "he's done" "you have made the final table" "he will loose this". When the flop, turn and river where on the board the brothers started celebrating that he made the final table. I leaned over the table and showed the dealer the flush I had just made and I won the hand. We can continue.

I turned over to the other table where the celebration had started and said something about my flush. I don't remember the words but it is not important anyway. I was still in this game. I looked over at the poker manager and told him I was not happy and they were acting like vultures. I felt it was inappropriate for what they were doing. Not to long after that someone went out on the second table which brought us down to the final. I made it. Pressure was relieved and I could feel some stress start to subside.

From the final ten we continued to play some more for the little money that was available. My goal was met and I didn't care about that. I was headed to Sunday with the opportunity to show I can still play the tournament game against the top 10 players. My goal is not complete until Sunday afternoon. I will be ready to play again.

That all being said, I miss my Mom and she is on my mind. I have not wanted to say anything but I dedicated my play this weekend to her. If I don't make the end of Sunday tournament I can be proud that I made the qualifier and was in a position to play my best. I am not done and I haven't thrown in the towel. Here I go Mom, I can doing anything I put my mind to.

Today is a regular work day and there are two more qualifiers to go through but this time I am working not playing. Time to watch more hands and watch players play.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Today is a very important day for me at the tables. This is where I want to do my best and qualify for the Sunday 40.

I am going to start out with a regular tournament and see if I can get one more voucher which would help pay for this evening tournament. This will also be the warm up to the next tournament at 3PM as that is the first qualifier and if I can get in the top 10 will move me to the Sunday 40.

If that does not happen I will have one more try. I will be playing the second qualifier this evening to see if I can get into the Sunday 40.

This will be three tournaments today. I will need to be focused and be very patient and wait for the cards to come to me. I will also try to make some moves on the table from position to gather chips. I have been dealing to these people for a number of months now and I do understand which ones I need to stay away from and which ones will play cards that are not optimal. My advantage from a dealer stand point.

I will also be playing the live cash game inbetween the tournaments to try and cash a little bit and help pay for the tournaments I am playing. Always trying to increase the Bank Roll.

Last night I went in and sat down at the live table playing $2-$6 and in 45 minutes walked away with $30 added to my BR. After the tournament I decided to go home, instead of playing, to be with Cindy. I have been putting in enough hours I just wanted to be home. I know I don't talk about my bankroll very much but I will say I have now built it up into the 4 digits. Got to keep working at that.

You know I have been trying to loose weight. How to do it and I need some type of motivation. I was awake early and thought that the one way I could do this is with Subway. What would happen if I ate nothing but Subway for a month. I could do my cooked cereal in the morning and then a salad or sandwich and then in the evening another sandwich or salad. I could do that for a month. I would then walk or jog around the neighborhood on a set path and see what happens for the month. Could I loose the 25 to 30 pounds to get myself under the 200 mark? Wouldn't hurt to try. Maybe start date will be March 1. I will let you know.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

I had a good day yesterday. I dealt a couple of tournaments and then I came home to work on some of my Mom's stuff and get more of this completed.

Starting tomorrow this will begin my big weekend. I have achieved the top two in one of the tournaments to receive my voucher to play in one of the four qualifying tournaments. I have chosen to play the first one at 3PM Friday afternoon. This will let me know right away what I need to do for the rest of the weekend. If I don't reach the final table in the first tournament I will play the second and pay the full price.

My plan for today is to try and get the second voucher. Since I will be dealing the first and second tournament today my only chance left will be tonight and friday morning. This will also be used as a tune-up for the Sunday tournament if I get that far. Notice I say if. My plan is to get there and I won't give up and I need to make great decisions.

I am really focused right now on my play. Now lets get it done.

Of course I am really torn with excitement and also trying to deal with the loss of my Mom. Everytime I talk about her and think about her I start to cry. Yes, men have feelings too. I want to dedicate this weekend to her but also don't want to bring disappointment if I don't achieve my end results. I want to know that I played my optimum and gave it all I have in being mentally prepared.

I am also trying to make contact with a personal trainer for loosing weight. I am so tired of being overweight and I need to change my lifestyle and I am asking for help to get this done. Since October of 2011 I have lost 28 pounds but I have another 50 to go and I really want to get there. I am sure it would make me feel stronger and mentally better. We will see what happens.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I worked the first tournament on Sunday and I fully did not have my mind on what I was doing. I made some errors in not being fully engaged in the tournament.

I continued to try to focus on what I needed to do. I appreciated the players and the fellow dealers in letting me work through this. At last the tournament was over and I could move on.

The next tournament was getting close to start and we had almost 20 players signed up. New dealers were coming in and that was going to allow some of us to play in this one. This tournament is the Player of the Week and has good money available to the final table. I will always try to play this one when I can.

With the added dealers I asked if I could play the tournament. I felt I was on this rush from Friday cashing in that tournament and wanted to see if I could continue the run. Since I cashed I was able to pay the lower buy in to play as well.

In every tournament there are a couple of times where you have to win the race to be able to continue. I did that and was moving on in this tournament. I ended up getting to the final table and had some chips to work with as well. In the end the table chopped and we took home some good cash. I did not win the second voucher but will play the tournament on Friday afternoon to try and qualify for Sunday.

We will have the Memorial for my Mom on March 10 so that will be a date that I will be working towards as well. A lot of things need to be finalized and notifications need to be put out. I am so thankful for the DSHS people that helped in keeping Mom where she needed to be. The staff at the Alzheimers Care Unit were fantastic with our family and working with us to keep Mom comfortable. The staff at the Assisted Living facility in keeping an eye on Dad to make sure he is safe and doing well. I don't know what I would have done without them.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

It has been 24 hours now since my Mom has passed away and I really don't feel any better. I understand this will take a while and I will work through this. My efforts now need to be turned to my Dad and make sure he gets through this as well. The planning for the memorial will start soon and we are looking at March 10 and this will allow people to plan and be here if they are able.

Today I am also getting back to work in the casino. I will be dealing today in one or maybe two tournaments. For myself I need to be active and not just sit around thinking. I quess it is my way of working through my loss.

I have been going over my play in the tournament on Friday. It was important that I get the voucher for the next tournament this weekend. I would like to get one more voucher but will settle for one and try to make the best of my opportunity.

I have been reading the book "Decide to Play Great Poker" by Annie Duke and it has helped me think about what I am doing and why I am playing the hands that I am playing. What is the plan for every hand I play? I have been working at getting more people out of the pot so I am playing more one on one and then working the position I am in. So far in the book I have gotten to Pre Flop and Raising so the next area of study is going to be Post Flop play.

I would love to read this book fast and get the information out of it to use but then again I may not remember what I need to do and loose the thoughts that I need to work with. If I can get myself deep into the qualifying tournament with the knowledge that I have so far I would be happy with myself. It is good to have goals.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Obviously this is not a post that I wanted to do. My Mom passed away this morning around 6AM. I got the call from Hospice telling me the news. I then drove over and let Dad know and we went to the Care Unit to see her before the funeral home came to pick her up and proceed with the plan.

My Mom had Alzheimers and then the last three years she has had breast cancer. Both of them together has been so bad to watch. Rest in Peace
Mom.

Since my sister has been here she has been giving me a couple of days off so I could play some poker while she was with Dad driving him over to see
mom. I played in two tournaments yesterday and played some live cash game for a little bit.

The first tournament I got down to the middle of the tournament and then went out. The second one I played very well and made it to the final table. I was playing some good hands and kept chipping up and was able to knock out the 6th place person. At that time the offer was given that we chop the pot. As a dealer for the casino we will not decline the offers unless for some reason it is unreasonable. We chopped the pot and included the dealers for a full share and we were done with the 4 hours of playing.

It was nice to get the voucher for the end of the month tournament. Now I want to get through the next qualifying tournament and get to the final 40 players to play in the bounty tournament. This tournament will feature the poker managers best 10 players in our area against 40 others. It would be nice to have a good showing.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Another day that was uneventful at the casino. It is nice to be able to deal a couple of tournaments and then come home. Thats not what happened.

I was asked if I would come back to work the evening shift if needed. I stayed around the casino and ate lunch. The poker manager came in and and sat at my table. We were able to talk about a couple of items I have been wanting to discuss with him.

The first was trying to get a new tournament started on Sundays. I am trying to get a Shootout going. We have close to 30 players and I think we could have 3 tables and the top two would go to the final table. I want to get this promoted and started soon.

The second area that we discussed was actual poker play. I am trying to get better at my live game and this was a good time to ask questions. I need to make some changes in my game to be more productive and start looking at the bigger picture. I need to look more at the hourly rate and then take care of the greed part in wanting more when I play. I do slow play quite a bit and I think that hurts me in winning pots.

I did try raising last night in the live game and in some cases it did not work. I was also playing some cards I probably shouldn't have. This right now will be a work in progress. I still limped in and slow played when I had the cards at the flop. Overall the buy in for the night was down when I finally left the casino.

Well, another day and I plan on being at the casino all afternoon playing in their tournaments.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

It was nice to go back to work yesterday. Dealing the cards and being around people and not thinking about the inevitable. They understand what is going on as well so that does make a difference.

One person yesterday did drive me nuts. I was dealing the cards and one player went all in. I ended up have two more callers and they were for more chips. I started to divide the chips out and the person kept telling me I was wrong. I just couldn't see what I was doing wrong. He got very boisterous about it so I call the floor over to see what the problem was.

I explained my actions to the Floor person and then showed him what I was trying to accomplish. When I got done the floor said I had done it right and the player says "I see". All of that for this. The floor then told the person to calm down and let me do my job. I was correct in what I
did.

Other than that it was an uneventful day. I then took the bus home and made Enchiladas and Chile Rellenos for our meal that evening. My sister and her daughter with her daughter are in town to visit our Mom and Dad.

I have been looking at a Kindle Fire. I am looking at the Pros and Cons of purchasing one of these. I loaded the kindle on my iPhone last night so I can try it out on the iphone and see if it would make a difference for me on the bigger device.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

I took my Dad over to see Mom after talking to him about what had happened the day before. I try to prepare him for the events that he will see. Mom was alert and trying to talk. The Director of the unit offered to let Dad stay with Mom the whole day. Dad sat with Mom and talked with her without any one else in the room. It was a good day for him and I think it was something that needed to be done for him.

I am trying to get back into some poker stuff. I started watching the Live@thebike yesterday evening. Annie Duke was on commentating on the SNG they had going. I need to go back over the video to try and glean some information from the program.

Today I am going back to work and will be dealing. Not sure about playing the game. I may wait a bit for that. I would like to be more focused.

I can't believe how many people still talk on their cell phones while driving the car. It is just amazing to me.

Monday, February 13, 2012

We ended up having over 50 people play in the tournament and with the silent auction we were able to raise over $1500. It went great and the players really got into helping with this event.

This morning I went to the casino to play in the tournament. I didn't last long. My mind has not been into the game lately.

As I have written in the past my Mom has Alzheimers and Cancer. Both are in their end stages. We arrived at the Care Unit this afternoon and she was alert and acknowledged us. Right after she drank some water and we had a chance to talk to her she closed her eyes and she did not open them up again during our visit. We left for the day.

About an hour later I was called and notified she is now unresponsive and her breathing has changed. We are now waiting for the call that she is gone. Actually she has been gone for a while now. Alzheimers took her away from us years ago. Cancer is the one that is taking her now. Right now I can't think about anything else but try to get my Dad through this event that is going to happen to our family.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

We have a dealer that was put into the hospital back in December and when he got out and received his bill it was over $30,000. Since that time he has been in the hospital again trying to figure out what is going on with him.

Today the Noon tournament will be done for him. I hope it goes well and we have enough people to really make a difference. There will also be a silent auction on items brought in to help as well.

It is always nice to see people helping others when they can. Medical expenses are so high and insurances have cut back. When you don't know how you are going to pay your expenses the stress can be high.

Yesterday I was given the day off to be with my Mom. She is status quo in what is going on with her. She spoke a few words and opened her eyes. We will be keeping an eye on her to see if there are any changes that would require us to change our schedules. Right now it is all about her and making her comfortable.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

I did get to play on Thursday evening. I arrived back at the casino after taking the bus home. Since the bus does not run at night I needed to get home and then quickly changed clothes and headed back to the casino. I was able to sign up for the $2 tournament. Actually when you get done paying for the extras it cost $7 to play. Not bad as I also brought two cans for the second harvest and received a T$500 chip. Total starting count was T$2500.

The tournament was going well for me and I was playing well. My final hand was QQ's and I ran into someone with AA's. I couldn't catch the Q so I was out.

I then went over and sat down and started playing the $2-$6 Spread Limit game. I did well and got my chip stack up around the $170 area from my usual buy in of $100. We changed the game to $2-$10 Spread Limit and I was not getting cards. Every time I would play the flop just wouldn't work out for me.

I did put in about three hours for this session. I was going to leave at 9PM and I ended up going until 9:30. In that short of time I took my chip stack down to $80 and figured it was time to leave for sure. I wanted to leave when I got down to my buy in or if I had built it up I would have left ahead but I was pleased with my play just card dead.

My last hand before I left is what took me down below my mark. I had a Kx in my hand and a K came on the flop. I bet and then a flush possibility came on the turn. I didn't have the flush but then the person I was playing against said he didn't have the flush and if I did he was beat. I ended up calling thinking he had a pair and my K would beat him and he turned over a set. Ok, I didn't play that one well.

I got home and since I had the doctor visit in the morning I took my Valium and went to bed. I had my visit in the morning and when I got home I went back to bed and slept another 6 hours. I had taken 3 valium over the course of 10 hours just to get through the experience of the dentist. I don't remember a thing and thats the way I want the dentist experience to go.

Got a call in the afternoon that my Mom was not doing well so we spent the evening with her. I know she will leave us soon and it is hard to watch her go through both Cancer and Alzheimers. It's alright Mom we love you and everything will be alright.

Thursday, February 09, 2012

I am back to riding the bus again today. After the last few days of taking care of business for my parents and needing to drive elsewhere than the bus route. Now I will get back on track of riding the bus and saving gas money.

Yesterday the dealing went well. I dealt two tournaments and did get out of the casino early. No one wanted to play a live game so we shut down early. Hopefully today that may change. I would like to get in a session tonight playing the $2-$10 spread.

It is amazing to watch what people do when they have a little alcohol on board. We had a person who decided to get into a conversation about politics with one of the dealers. He went on and on with his views of what is wrong and what should happen. I always believe there are three things you should not discuss in public and those are Politics, Religion and Sex. They just open up so many different opinions that you could get yourself into something you didn't want to do.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

We were able to get one tournament off yesterday. The one tournament that I like to see play and deal in is the Noon $25 tournament. It didn't happen. We didn't get the players this week. There are other casino's in the area so someone must be putting on a game that took our players away. It would be nice to see one page that would list all the games in the area where a person could actually see what is happening in each casino.

The poker manager talked to a couple of us about our dealing and the need to work on speed especially in the live game. This is something I need to work on. In fact I have 3 areas I would like to focus on and get better at. I am getting better at chip counting with all ins but it still takes a little bit when you have a number of them at one time. I had a spot with 5 people going all in with different amounts.

The second one is speed of getting the cards back out to the players. I am concerned with not turning cards over when I should just try to get them out and not worry about anything else.

The third one is reading the cards faster and trusting my read. When three or four people turn their cards over I want to make sure I am sending the chips to the correct person. I even have people tell me they have a straight when they don't just to make me go back and read the cards again and that takes up time for me.

I was reading somewhere that if you have your dealer badge you can play in the WSOP dealer tournament. I never thought of that. That would be an opportunity to play in one of the events at the Rio. That is a thought and I will need to look into that a little bit more.

During one of our down times yesterday the poker manager and myself played some headsup. Bad move on my part. It only took a couple of hands and my chips were in his stack. It was fun and it would be great if he would be able to coach me in tournament play. I have never asked him that question but it would be someone that knows my game and what I do. I have asked if I could pick his brain on questions about tournament play but the time to do that has not been available. I like to watch him play when he does sit down.

Today we have two tournaments again and will do some live game as well. The usual stuff on a daily basis. I have not been taking the bus to work this week as I have been taking care of some business for my parents after work. Today is no different. Maybe tomorrow I can ride the bus and save some gas.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

I would hope everyone that reads this blog understands that this chronicles my ups and downs in the poker world. I love the game and I get frustrated at times with my play and the people around the game. This is me and nothing else. You are seeing a portion of my life and how I am dealing with it. I am at around 600 hits per month and I think that is great to have people reading what I am putting in this blog. I am open to comments if you have anything to say.

Yesterday I ended up going over to play some live cash poker at $2-$6 spread. I have found that I don't do well during the day playing this game. I do better in the evening though. I am not sure of the reason and will have to find out why. I know I put less money on the table during the day than night. Am I disregarding the amount of money and don't care? It is a big difference. Do I play a bigger range with less money on the table? Questions I need to ask and find out.

After the live game I decided to play the 10AM tournament which costs $2 to enter. I lasted for awhile and then my AK ran into a straight. Not bad play. I am playing a few more tournaments now and feel better about my game. I then decided to go ahead and play the $5 tournament next at Noon. This time I made the final table and went out 6th place. I ended up playing 104 and getting a 10 on the flop and then lost to a river flush. I was being blinded out and was card dead for awhile so when the big blind came around I took the chance. Very pleased.

Today is our $25 tournament so we will see what happens and how many players we will get.

Right now I am working on my bankroll to get it up higher and then I will try to maintain it at a bigger level. At this time I can do this with my working and playing and watching the levels in the bankroll. I do have a goal in mind of where I want to be and then I will see what happens when I start using that roll extensively again. One thing I can say about the bankroll is I haven't dropped to zero dollars so I know I can maintain the level. I want to play a bigger game and this will allow that. I keep looking at the $2-$20, $2-$40 games and would like to try them out. There are some of the same players there that play the $2-$10 game.

Monday, February 06, 2012

I got to work at around 10:30 yesterday morning. I have been writing down the rules of the poker room and wanted to complete it before anyone else got into the room.

Yesterday was the day that I started showing the business cards I purchased for the poker room dealers. It will make it easier for the rest of us to pass out these cards and maybe bring in some new players. So far new business cards and some new seat cards will help us.

When the day was done at around 6PM for me I had dealt two tournaments and then a continuous live game in between. I was tired after all of that and I hadn't eaten since 9AM. Being diabetic that isn't good. I was able to sit down after all was done and took my Blood Sugar. Naturally it was low and could have been part of what I was feeling.

Is this really worth it? Am I happy at what I am doing? These questions started going through my mind. I haven't been playing much poker lately due to being tired and my mind just isn't in it right now. My Mom's situation is getting closer to being done and then watching my Dad who has already stated he is tired and would like to just go to sleep. Hard to deal with some of this.

Today we had a poker player that actually yelled at me. I understand he does not want anyone to color up his chips during play. He wants to use them as showing he has a big chip stack. If the players are watching they know what he has and shouldn't be scared of the few extra stacks that are in smaller denominations. I did get him calmed down and didn't take anymore chips off of the table while he was there.

Now that this is the next day and I have had a night to think about all of this and my blood sugars are fine I am sure I need to go back and look at my goals and get back on track as a poker player. Start studying the books and working on my WSOP Academy notes again. There are things I can do that will help me and I need to start being focused.

Today is an off day and we will see what gets done. I will visit my Mom and see how Dad is doing. Concentrating on them right now.

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Today I don't need to be at the casino as early as the other days. The first tournament starts at Noon.

Yesterday was an enjoyable day for me. It was different. Usually we would have a tournament at 3PM and because we didn't have enough players show up it was cancelled and we had a live cash game running.

This game ran for about 4 1/2 hours. Two of us alternated in the box every 30 minutes to give ourselves some down time. I will say it was the best afternoon I have spent in quite awhile only in that I am getting used to the live play. We have our usual players and will mix in some new ones that just happen to drop in. It's money on the table and it helps the casino as well as the dealers and everyone is having fun trying to get the Monte Carlo's.

Something else that I have been wanting to mention about Island Casino is that we have some of the most giving people playing. Yes, there might be an alterior motive but it works. Back in November we started a can drive for one of the Food places in town. Figured we would do this for Thanksgiving and then it stayed on for December for Christmas. Our players were bringing in 2 cans to get some extra chips for the tournament they were playing.

Here it is February and our players are still bringing in can goods. Yes, they like the extra chips but the food place is getting two big 55 gallon containers full of cans in about a months time. It has been great to watch our players continue to help others.

This next week we are going to have a charity tournament for one of our dealers who spent time in the hospital. He lost a lot of time and hopefully this will help for some of his expenses. There will be a silent auction held as well. Helping others is always a good sign for a family of dealers, and great players.

Saturday, February 04, 2012

I really did take the day off yesterday. I think the only thing I missed was the blogging.

I took care of some financial stuff for my parents and then drove into town to get to the bank and Life Creations. Life Creations is the place we chose to take care of both Mom and Dad when they pass away. The main things have been taken care of now and the misc stuff need to be written up and we can just enjoy the last bit of time with Mom and Dad and not worry about how things will get done.

Once that was taken care of I headed over to the Casino to play some live before lunch and going to pick up Dad. I sat down with my usual buy in and didn't play well and gave 2/3 back to the players. The night before I played as well and ended up going home with a +$4. Talk about variance and the time of day I was playing.

I have noticed that I tend to play better in the evening than in the morning. I seem to play a different style and that affects how I play my cards. I will try to play the day time like my evening time and see if that makes a difference.

I have also noticed I don't seem to be taken seriously when I play cards. I get called when I raise and get re-raised when I call. I am trying to figure out if I have a tell or what is going on. Maybe if I wear sunglasses and a hoodie? I don't like playing that way but maybe it would help the image.

Today I am back to dealing for the weekend. Lets hope for a good day and some good tips.

I weighed myself yesterday and I have lost another 2 pounds. Remember my starting weight in October of 2011 was 243 and now I am at 225. The hardest part of this is I haven't done anything different. I am not on a diet plan and haven't exercised. Just loosing the weight. I did have some blood work done to see if there was anything causing this and the lab work came back normal. I would love to see me in the 100's. When I see 199 I think I will throw a party.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

I dealt some of the live game before we sat down and started the tournament. Dealing the morning tournament went well and we were able to finish before the next one started.

In the second tournament it started out well and during the middle of it we had a person go out and the button was being moved. I actually moved the button to the next person and then stated what the blinds where to be for them. Immediately I get the person that is supposed to be in the big blind complaining he already did the big blind. I informed him he called in the big blind and would put the blind out. His friend next to him started in on me as well. Saying I need to learn the game.

I asked them if they wanted me to call the floor and they said no and we continued with the way it shoud be. The next hand they started up again about the blinds and that I need to learn the game. I told them to stop and move on to the next hand.

On the third hand I started hearing this again and so I called floor over and had them push me out of the box. I was livid and was not going to listen to it anymore. When the next break came I did re-enter the table and took control right away and did not have any other issues with the players.

Even though I know I was correct in what I did I let the players get to me and that was wrong. We as dealers work hard to give the players a game that they can come in and play. Whether it be $2 or a $5 tournament we strife for the best and honest game. The players need to understand we are not robots and problems can occur. That is why we have a floor person to back us up in whatever decision is made.

Hopefully today I won't have any issues and I can get through Thursday. Tomorrow morning I have a visit with my Dentist. I am not a fan of dentists and will be taking my Valium starting tonight and one in the morning so I can get through the visit. In that case you will not hear from me until friday afternoon maybe. Depending on how I feel.

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

We were told in a staff meeting we need to come up with ways to save our jobs. Spring and Summer is coming and just like any season the poker players in the area will be doing other things during the time the sun is out. Getting fresh air and doing something else is important to life but I need to save my job.

I need to come up with a tournament and a structure that would make people want to play in the tournament. Need to put that thinking cap on.

I took my truck in yesterday to have the front end aligned. Yep, it was out of alignment as I have known for some time. Really, the cost was not as bad as I thought it could be. Now my next project is to get the brakes done. As I build my bankroll I can get some projects done as well.

I purchased my month pass last night for the bus transit system. I will give it a try for the month and see if it will work for me. Saving gas is one thing I know I can do and help our bottom line here at home. Buying the pass on a monthly basis is nice as well and a person can go month by month depending on what is going on for the month.